Indeed, I will be
going there in November. While the films are now playing from London to Hong
Kong, I chose Denver. All four films will be screening there, I have a number
of close friends in Colorado, many of whom supported the making of the film
when no one yet thought much about this project and so this is a great occasion
to show Forgotten Transports to them
on a movie screen. The Starz
Denver Film Festival is really giving my film quartet a lot of exposure and
very good screening times, there is even a special event held there in the
films' honor, so I am really looking forward to the experience.
How does it feel now that this project is "in the can" as they say? Are you having withdrawal pangs? Can you take a breath before you jump into something else?
I am happy the films are out and enjoying success but frankly, I don't have much time to suffer from any withdrawal, I hardly have the time to think about anything but work. In fact, sometimes I wish I had more time to go around the world with my films but I don't, since I am already working on a new project. Except for the fact that I began writing a script for a comedy and started preparatory work on a new documentary (not really Holocaust related) and now put both projects on ice, I got an offer from the Czech Foreign Ministry to build an Institute which would deal with all the unresolved questions stemming from WWII. It is a very challenging task, very stressful and more often than not overwhelmingly time demanding but it is something I believe in, something that came almost too late and is badly needed and it is a job that in a way combines all my various interests. The only disadvantage is than now when I basically live in my office, I have no time for filmmaking. That's however an incentive to get this Institute off the ground soon so I can take a break and make another film. I now know much better how to go about making movies, so the new one should not take as long as Forgotten Transports did.
You started because of your grandfather's experience at the hands of the Nazis. Did doing this documentary series give you any closure?
Since my Grandfather died [after the war] when I was only ten years old, I never got to ask him what he went through. I loved him very much so when I got older I naturally wondered what he experienced and that gradually led me to all this research. However, in general I did not do the films because of some need for personal closure, I did it because of pure fascination with the people I met. I was foremost interested in the people who survived these little known places and with how they survived them. One author I particularly is Isaak Babel. I also share his fascination with violence, but feel a bit like him in the story when he rides with the Red Cavalry but is unable to kill a goose. I find the topic of people stuck in senseless violence gripping but I vent it by telling stories. And the true stories I capture in Forgotten Transports are the quintessential stories of human survival, will to survive, hope and life. That's actually what I am interested in how people can laugh, love, hope and live despite being surrounded by complete horror.
Good luck with Forgotten Transports and your challenging new job. Thanks so much for talking with me, Lukas.
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Forgotten Transports website
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